Peter Platt had been out of policing for more than two decades, but when an anonymous officer cried out for help, Platt knew what to do.

Platt received the email because he was the founder of Badge of Life Canada, a support group for officers struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Basically (the email) said, ‘I’ve had enough. I’m not going on with life,'” recalled Syd Gravel, another ex-Ottawa officer who worked with Platt to establish Badge of Life.

“Peter right away went into his policing mode. He called Ottawa Police Service and asked them to get a warrant to identify the sender. Then get in touch with that police service to ask them to check the address. Sure enough, the officer had prepared themselves to commit suicide. They were able to save him.

“It was typical of Peter. But it wasn’t until I told the story that he would even admit that it had happened.”

Peter “Halsey” Platt died of cancer on Oct. 12 at his home in Orléans. He was 67.

“He was a giant of a man,” said Gravel, who first met Platt when they were patrol officers together, but became close through their shared experience of PTSD. Gravel’s stemmed from one incident — a night in August 1987 when he shot and killed a suspect in a gas bar robbery.

Platt’s PTSD was more insidious, the cumulative effect of a 23-year policing career.

“It was about 3 a.m. one October morning in 1992 when my world started to crumble around me,” Platt wrote on the Badge of Life website. “I was driving around the streets looking for a large tree to drive into to end my life. I had never felt this strange feeling before … I felt a sudden, deep depression. I called my sergeant, who came to me in what seemed like seconds, and I explained to him how I was feeling. He followed very closely behind me while we drove to the station. I changed out of my uniform, went home and never returned to police work again.”

Platt was diagnosed with PTSD but was frustrated by what he felt was an indifference from his superiors. In 2010, he founded Badge of Life based on a similar program in the U.S.

“He realized there wasn’t anywhere for municipal and provincial police and First Nations officers to turn,” Gravel said. “From when we were traumatized until that day, in 2010, people didn’t know which way to turn. Where are the resources? What does PTSD look like. Do I have it? What should I do?”

Platt enlisted Gravel’s help after Gravel published a book, 56 Seconds, about his own struggles with PTSD. Platt was finding the organization a hard sell, probably because of his own earnest and aggressive approach.

“I don’t think it was intentional that he was being ignored, I just don’t think it (PTSD) was on anybody’s radar,” Gravel said. Gravel convinced Platt to soften his tone — “to pour a little honey” on the message — and Badge of Life took off.

But PTSD wasn’t Platt’s only challenge. In 2011, while watching TV with his wife, Cathy, Platt scratched an itch just above his left breast and felt a peculiar lump. At Cathy’s urging, he had it checked the next day. It was breast cancer.

“Never, beginning at that moment, had I felt so frightened,” he wrote in a blog for the Breast Cancer Society of Canada. “As a male, so traditionally guarded with my feelings, I looked desperately around the examining room, wondering what to do with the waves of panic and weakness that swept over me.”

Platt had a mastectomy and follow up surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes. In February 2014, the cancer returned in his bones. Initial treatments showed promise, but this year doctors gave him grim news. Platt and Gravel worked to ensure Badge of Life would continue after Platt’s death.

“He was never willing to give up,” Gravel said. “Even a day before he passed he called me up and said, ‘I’m here!'”

Things have changed a lot for police officers, since Platt’s last shift. Officers are more open when talking about mental health, Gravel said, particularly the younger generation.

“The fog has lifted. We’re having conversations.”

Lifting that fog is part of Peter Platt’s legacy, he said.

“Going out on a limb like he did, to put himself out there as a champion of the cause, the development of Badge of Life Canada, wanting to speak on behalf of those who could not speak … And he did it all on his own time and his own dime.”

Platt, who is survived by Cathy and their two daughters, Jo-Anne and Stephanie, was honoured Friday with a memorial service at Beechwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to Badge of Life Canada or to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

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